When he found this missing strand of hair under the inkwell, Qi Yuan felt that there was no need to check the room again. Many long-standing doubts, together with the various doubts in front of them, point to a cruel answer.
He watched silently for a moment, then put the hair back in his pocket and went straight into the ground through another tunnel entrance to the old mansion. The cool and wet wind flatteringly gathered around him, sending the smell and sound away, and Qi Yuan followed the smell of rain to the depths of the earth.
The source of the smell was distant and near, but it was always in front of him and finally led him to a dead end.
There was not a glimmer of light underground, and the wind struck its head on the uneven rock face and hurried back. Standing in total darkness, it was as if abandoned by the whole world.
“Tick-tick-tick-” The sound of water sounded in cascading tones, followed by the sticky sound of flowing.
“Shut up,” Qi Yuan said expressionlessly, “Make a sound and I don’t mind showing you just how I am when I fall.”
“But then, you won’t be able to handle me then.”
“It’s okay, I’m not going to make you fall.” A faint laugh came from the beak mask, “I’m good at controlling my voice, and you’d better control your temper too.”
Different from the terrible roar that Ye Zhan had heard, this mourning bird emitted a pleasant voice like a clear spring, and if Ye Zhan was here, he would feel that this sound was particularly familiar.
“Should I thank you for your cooperation?” Qi Yuan sneered, “Jiang He, or rather, Chu Yu?”
The writhing black tentacles and long worms turned into wisps of black gas, scattered in the narrow cavern, and the mourning bird showed the silhouette of a man, and he was dressed in a black cloak, his exposed ankles and hands were unusually pale. He reached out and took off the bird’s beak mask, his gray hair fell, and his four overlapping pupils looked at Qi Yuan together.
“I didn’t expect it to be exposed so soon,” Chu Yu smiled, “When did you start to suspect me?”
“When?” Qi Yuan hugged his arms, “Two years ago.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“I’ve only made two requests, the first is,” Qi Yuan said in a deep voice, “If I fall, then kill me.”
“Second, if anyone betrays me, I will kill them.” Before the words fell, Qi Yuan had already choked Chu Yu’s throat and violently pushed him against the rock wall, “Is there anything you want to explain?”
“Don’t be in a hurry to kill me yet, I’ve helped you a lot,” Chu Yu’s neck sunken and turned into a slippery wet mud, but his speech was unaffected, “You must have a place to use me in the future, I promise.”
Qi Yuan just stared at him indifferently, in this underground far away from the human world, he finally stripped away all the gentle masks, revealing the cruel nature of the dragon. Chu Yu couldn’t stop trembling, swallowing saliva, and his heart was beating wildly, this was the suppression between the bloodlines, not something he could control.
“My pen name is ‘Jiang He’, the ‘Jiang He’ of ‘Er Cao's body and name may be destroyed, but the rivers will flow till eternity‘. As you can see, I used to live in Genjo, I was an investigative reporter, I wrote for the Long Ye Daily, and I lived a very poor life.” Chu Yu said, “Although I have that bloodline, the bloodline of a ‘saint’, haha, but I don’t even dare to go out without sunglasses. I would sit at that desk day in and day out, reading and writing, and occasionally going out to do some research.”
“I don’t remember how many years ago it was when I planned to do a monster article regarding the monsters under the underground of Xuancheng, you should have heard of it, right? I went deep into the tunnel, and I found the monster, no, I should say, it was the monster that found me. His name is ‘Xuan Yi’.”
Qi Yuan slightly released his strength, and Chu Yu slid to the ground, letting out a dull cough.
“The rumors are true, Xuan Yi has always lived underground, and he used to be the guardian of Xuancheng and accepted human offerings. However, the appearance of the dragon vein sealed him away, leaving him to sleep underground, never to see the light of day. You should have met him in person, his voice was full of pain and hatred. When he saw me, he had already begun to wake up, and he seduced me and said that he would give me strength as long as I was willing to help him, just like this. ”
As he spoke, Chu Yu raised his hand, and one of his fingers turned into a tentacle, and quickly retracted it.
Qi Yuan knew in his heart, sure enough, that the underground monster and the mourning bird were not the same thing, “So you were seduced by Xuan Yi?”
“No, I refused at first.” Chu Yu smiled, “Judging from my family’s experience, a strong force is more like a curse. Xuan Yi had just woken up, and his strength had not yet recovered, he tried to pollute me, but I escaped. Before leaving, Xuan Yi said to me: I will wait for you, you will definitely come back, because you have a part of you that is incompatible with this world.”
“I didn’t care, I went back to the surface and wrote a lot of reports about underground monsters. This should have passed like this, until three years ago—”
“Three years ago, Liu Ling found you and asked you to help investigate the assassination of the city lord.” Qi Yuan said.
“That woman has the courage and determination to make a desperate move,” Chu Yu bowed slightly, “so I agreed, but it also brought us misfortune. I had just started my investigation when I was reported that Dragon Scale Legion had broken into my house and searched all of my manuscripts. Then I was condemned and expelled from the city – no, I thought I was gonna be expelled but it turned out that they sold me to slave traders. You already know that I’m an Omega, and I’m worth a lot…”
“Why don’t you resist?” Qi Yuan stared at his face, it was indeed a beautiful Omega’s face, “You have the blood of a saint…”
“Resist?!” Chu Yu’s expression was dyed with madness, and his pupils suddenly constricted, “Of course, I had to resist! I commanded them to let go of me with my voice, and then they found out I had this ability, so the slave traders raised their knives and cut out my tongue and cut off my vocal cords! ”
Qi Yuan’s heart skipped a heavy beat, and he saw that his four pupils trembled slightly, covered with a layer of bright water under the candle flame.
“Haha, you think it’s incredible, right? I have the blood of a saint, as long as I make a sound, I can order them to commit suicide, how can I be bullied like this by a group of mortals?” Chu Yu shook his head, “But I couldn’t do it at that time, I never killed anyone, I was born in the city, and I couldn’t even kill a chicken. I didn’t think people could be so cruel, and after losing my voice, I had a not-so-good life as an Omega slave…”
Speaking of this, Chu Yu choked slightly, and he didn’t have to guess to think of how much humiliation and grief were hidden in just a few words.
“Later, I took the initiative to entangle with a customer from Xuancheng, who bought me and brought me back to Xuancheng.” Chu Yu said, “You’ve already guessed what happened next, right? As Xuan Yi said, I went back to him and made a deal with him. Look—”
Chu Yu stretched out his tongue, it was a tender red tongue that was no different from ordinary people, but soon, the part of the tip of the tongue turned into a swirling black gas and gradually dispersed, revealing its original appearance. His tongue had been severed from the base of the tongue, leaving only a hideous wound.
“At what cost?” Qi Yuan asked.
“Xuan Yi hasn’t asked me for the price yet, but it should be soon because, over the years, he is slowly waking up.” Chu Yu retracted his tongue, “When we approached Xuancheng on the ship, I could hear him calling me.”
“Let’s continue to talk about me, after getting the power of Xuan Yi, I turned into a mourning bird and went back to take revenge a little. I didn’t ask for their lives, I just cut off the slave traders’ tongues and vocal cords, and if they are as lucky as me, they should be able to live on.”
“Then I returned to Xuancheng and wanted to continue to investigate the assassination, I was unwilling- you understand this- I was unwilling to stop because I lost everything because of this matter, so I must find out the truth! But it was too late, and by that time all the clues were broken, Liu Ling and her son were nowhere to be found, and I could hardly find anything. ”
“So you found me.” Qi Yuan said, “Because you thought that I was the most suspicious person.”
“Yes, your sudden departure is so coincidental that it’s hard not to suspect you. Also, I’ve infiltrated the Institute and found that they’re suspicious of you as well.”
This is something that Qi Yuan didn’t know, so he couldn’t help but listen carefully.
Chu Yu said, “The Qi family hasn’t looked for you in the past five years, you must feel abandoned, right? But, no, the research institute has been secretly watching you, and even the pro-guard team has taken action and solved a lot of troubles for you.”
“I thought the assassination happened after I got “kidnapped” by Ye Zhan.” Qi Yuan said.
“Are you really sure?” Chu Yu’s eyes flickered, “How much memory do you have left from when you ran away? As far as I know, you were on the same floor as Qi Zhen at the time, and your wards were very close, do you really remember what you did at that time?”
“Don’t test me,” Qi Yuan said coldly, “I know very well what I did and didn’t do.”
“But they don’t know so they doubt you. Qi Zhen’s assassination may indeed have happened after you left, but your loss of control is the guide to all the chaos that happened afterward. So who can guarantee that you must not be related to the murderer?”
Qi Yuan didn’t rush to defend himself, but asked, “How much does the research institute know about the murderer?”
“Maybe not more than you. I secretly spied that they had been looking for the ‘origami man’, it was he who gave Ye Zhan the password to Feng Cheng’s computer, and he was the same one who gave Ye Zhan the prison key and the flying machine so that he could escape with you. Again, they are highly suspicious of the ‘Origami Man’ and suspect that he is the person who had used ultrasound to stimulate you out of control. There are all kinds of indications that the origami man is hidden inside Xuancheng, and he knows everything about Xuancheng very well, but they don’t know anything about the origami man.”
The origami man has not left any clues so far, and from the perspective of the research institute, their suspicions about Qi Yuan were legitimate but Qi Yuan still couldn’t help but laugh at himself, he had gone through so much suffering, but he had never been regarded as a victim, but was instead nailed to the stake of the suspect. The only person in this world who will be desperate to be good to him is probably Ye Zhan back then.
I was definitely not expecting Chu Yu of all people, to be the mourning bird. What he went through is horrible though. This huge conspiracy in Xuancheng is sort of beginning to make sense? There are still many unanswered questions but I think I’m beginning to see a bigger picture… I feel like a detective lol
Thank you for the chapter!